A shopping cart of a type in widespread use in supermarkets, drug stores, hardware stores, and other retail establishments comprises a wheeled chassis, a handle structure, and a basket. Commonly, the basket has fixed side, front, and bottom panel members and a pivotable back, which can be upwardly pivoted to permit one cart to nest within another. Although it is common for the basket to be wholly or predominantly made from welded wire components, it is known for the basket to have molded plastic panel members, which are preferred by some retailers.
As exemplified in Rehrig U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,774, it is known for a plastic basket for a shopping cart of the type noted above to comprise a single, molded part defining two side panel members, a front panel member, and a bottom panel member. A multipanel part can be quite expensive to mold. It can be quite difficult to maintain dimensional tolerances when molding such a part.
Joseph U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,077 discloses, in a shopping cart of the same type, a basket comprising an interior framework and plastic side, front, and bottom panel members, which may be separately molded, and which are attached to the interior framework. The use of an interior framework adds to the complexity and overall manufacturing cost of the shopping cart.
It would be highly desirable to construct a basket for a shopping cart of the type noted above from plastic side, front, and bottom panel members that could be separately molded and that could be easily assembled without any need for an interior framework for the basket.